Thirsty Satara locals need water, not Rahul Gandhi

Summer has spelt doom for Khatav and Mann talukas of Satara, whose villagers struggle to lay their hands on drinking water, let alone water for irrigating their fields that have begun developing cracks. Even frequent visits by political bigwigs have failed to find a solution for the rapid depletion of water, which has forced farmers to forego their Rabi crop, reports Kanchan Srivastava from ground zero.

Vishal Kamble, a 20-year-old ITI student of Shirasawadi, a village in Khatav taluka lying 50km from Satara city, wakes up several times in the night hoping to hear the faint sound of the tap water. But, for many days now, the tap’s water only trickles in for half an hour twice a week, thus forcing Kamble to scramble early for ferrying drinking water from a well nearly 1.5 kilometres away. Kamble fills six buckets with water in his three trips to last him 10 days before rushing to his college in Aundh, a 7,200-strong village in Khatav.

But things are far from good in Aundh, where farmer Eknath Pawar, 42, set his dried sugarcane fields on fire on Friday. In fact, this year Pawar did not sow a single crop in the other 24bighas he owns.

While water scarcity has already prevented thousands in both Khatav and Mann from even attempting the seasonal rabi crop, the paucity of drinking water now is driving them to the edge. Those who dared to sow sugarcane, pomegranate and banana have been rendered penniless.

In Aundh, 40km away from Satara and 18-20 km from the Yerla and Urmodi dams, five of the total 11 wells and three of the seven hand pumps have dried up after last year’s monsoon gave them the slip. Situation is worse at Gopuj, Gosavyachiwadi, Nimsode, Mahasurne, Kamchi and Popalkarwadi villages in Khatav.

The one-time capital of Maratha kingdom, Satara offers other extremes too. While its western hilly regions receive up to 600cms of annual rainfall, Maan and Khatav get only 60-80cms. People must get water through tankers or from wells several kilometres away.

Besides being supplied water by two major rivers, Koyna and Krishna, Satara also boasts of the Koyna dam — the biggest water project in state that also adds 2,960MW to the grid annually.

The Yerla dam supplies drinking water to 21 villages in Khatav under a ‘rural water scheme’ launched in 1992  with World Bank fund. People pay Rs50 a month to get tap water, but only once or twice a week. Other villages get Yerla dam water through tankers.

Without an irrigation system in place, farmers in Khatav and Mann talukas  (at 650metre height) are left entirely at the mercy of scanty rains and drying wells. The Kanher dam, that  has been irrigating 29 of the 140 Khatav villages since the 90s, is a depleted resource now. “Besides, farmers in 111 other villages must starve for water as there is no irrigation system in place,” says activist and English teacher Jayawant Kharade at Aundh.

Given the decreasing water table — from 100feet a few years ago to over 350feet now — drying up hand pumps and wells, Kharade insists the state should declare the areas as drought-hit. But, farmer Pawar only shrugs. “No one can change my destiny, not even agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, who represents us. Though he visits Mann, he has never come to Khatav,” he says.

Angry, though, Pawar is unaware of the situation in the neighbouring Mann, where 700 farmers are staying in a fodder camp at Mhaswad. Nandkumar Satpute (39), who is among them, says, “Not just the agriculture minister, but even Rahul Gandhi and Chavan have failed to bring a drop of water.”

No wonder Aundh sarpanch Deepak Nalawade (42) is unfazed by Rahul’s charm. “We don’t need Rahul Gandhi, only some water,” he says.